2 Abstract

The Code of Practice for Research Data Usage Metrics standardizes the generation and distribution of usage metrics for research data, enabling for the first time the consistent and credible reporting of research data usage.

This is the first release of the Code of Practice and the recommendations are aligned as much as possible with the COUNTER Code of Practice Release 5 that standardizes usage metrics for many scholarly resources, including journals and books. With the Code of Practice for Research Data Usage Metrics data repositories and platform providers can report usage metrics following common best practices and using a standard report format. This is an essential step towards realizing usage metrics as a critical component in our understanding of how publicly available research data are being reused. This complements ongoing work on establishing best practices and services for data citation.